Ohio man to be executed in '84 shooting deaths

By Kantele Franko

Associated Press

Published: Tuesday, May 17 2011 5:45 a.m. MDT

This undated photo released by the Ohio Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Daniel Bedford. Bedford is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday, May 17, 2011 for killing 25-year-old Gwen Toepfert and 27-year-old John Smith in April 1984.

Ohio Department of Corrections, Associated Press

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Summary

Attorneys are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Ohio execution of a man convicted in the 1984 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Attorneys are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Ohio execution of a man convicted in the 1984 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend.

Sixty-three-year-old Daniel Lee Bedford is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday morning. A last-minute stay of execution was lifted late Monday by a federal appeals court in Cincinnati.

Defense lawyer Al Gerhardstein says Bedford's team late Monday asked the Supreme Court to review the case. The nation's highest court confirmed the stay had been filed but made no immediate decision.

Lawyers have argued that Bedford has dementia and a mild mental disability that keep him from fully understanding the meaning and purpose of his death sentence.

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Rifleman

Salt Lake City, Utah

Daniel Lee Bedford is no longer with us. According to the news story he understood exactly what was going on ..... and why.

12:27 p.m. May 17, 2011
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